Current Social and Economic Issues

GA 332b — 17 November 1920, Stuttgart

Address to the Staff of the José del Monte Company

Occasioned by the handover of the José del Monte company to the “Coming Day”

[Eugen Benkendörfer greets those present and after an introduction, gives the floor to Rudolf Steiner.

Rudolf Steiner: Dear attendees! Now that Mr. Benkendörfer has informed you of the transfer of the Jose del Monte company to the 'Kommende Tag', I would like to warmly welcome you all as the chairman of the supervisory board of this 'Kommende Tag'. As a result of what has been accomplished, as Mr. Benkendörfer has informed you, and as has already been discussed to your satisfaction by your representatives, as I have heard to my great joy, you will begin to unite your work with that of the “Coming Day”.

I may perhaps assume that a large number of you have also participated in our endeavors in a social sense, in those endeavors that we began more than a year ago, after the end of the war had made it possible, based on anthroposophical spiritual science. We have also had the joy of seeing one of your representatives often present at our meetings and also hearing him speak at these meetings. Perhaps I may now just point out in a few words that these endeavors in the social sphere, which have grown out of anthroposophical spiritual science, were not only outwardly and thoroughly honestly meant, but that they were also carried by what I would like to call an inwardly honest conscientiousness. For you see, today, in these difficult times of general hardship, it is all too easy to say: I strive for this or that in social terms, I want this or that. It can be recognized that in most cases these intentions may be well-intentioned, that is, they come from those who, from their own lives, know this hardship, who are experiencing this hardship themselves, but one does not get anywhere with mere longing that “things should be better,” with mere words that “this or that must be done.” You can only get ahead if you also have the inner honest conscientiousness and the inner honest sense of responsibility to gain insight into how you can then remedy the social need, how you can advance socially in the service of general humanity. We started from this inner honest responsibility and from this inner honest conscientiousness when we first tried to speak to the entire labor force.

My esteemed audience, I would like to know in which period of time one could have hoped to find more approval for honest, conscientious and responsible social intentions than in the period following the war , which brought hardship and misery into the world, in the time when people in the widest circles could see what the lack of inner conscience and the lack of inner sense of responsibility can bring about in the world. Because basically, even if it is still hidden today in many ways, this war, which was followed by such hardship and misery, nevertheless emerged from the lack of inner sense of responsibility, from the lack of inner conscientiousness among those who should have had both. Because one had to realize, especially in the circles of the working population, that among the leaders who led into the war catastrophe, this inner sense of responsibility, this inner conscience was not present, is not present - also not among many, indeed among most of their successors who have survived the revolution in leading positions to this day – because one should have noticed this, we were allowed to believe that with honest words, but spoken out of insight, the hearts of the broadest circles of the working class could be won. And for me, I say this quite openly, for me, my esteemed audience, this proof has by no means failed to this day. I am of the opinion that these hearts can be won if only the right approach is found. Simply because it has to be done, because without this honest inner conscientiousness and without this honest insight into the situation, no progress can be made, no matter how beautiful the slogans the agitators use. It is a matter of objectivity, of conscientiousness, if progress is to be made, and it is a matter of an honest inner sense of responsibility.

Now, my esteemed audience, we then tried, without throwing dust in people's eyes, to address the works council issue in the way we had to think of it. We have also met with some approval. What has got in our way – and I don't want to attribute this to bad faith, but it must always be said – is the misunderstanding, even lack of understanding, that our efforts in the sense of the threefold social organism are met with by the socialist leadership. We can understand quite well what is actually at issue, and the masses will also understand it one day. But the leaders have managed to gradually empty our halls, or at least make them poorly attended. And we had to say to ourselves: we are not getting anywhere with mere words. We are not getting anywhere in the work that needs to be done in the service of the general public. And so we had to decide, because we were, so to speak, abandoned by the socialist leaders, to found an organization like Der Kommende Tag. This “day to come” should now gradually bring about the atmosphere of social life through its institutions, through the associative union of enterprises, which was actually meant back then when we started our work in April 1919. And we are convinced that we will perhaps be better able to convince the masses if they see what we are doing, despite the fact that they were discouraged from fully understanding us in terms of what we initially wanted to achieve with this crowd, entirely on our own, through the word, based on the will of this crowd. From such endeavors, which were truly motivated by honest inner responsibility and honest inner conscientiousness, as well as by the striving for insight into the true nature of the social situation and how the social future must be shaped, the “Day to Come” emerged. And we, who have been working for months towards this “Day to Come”, have been able to experience the great joy, as Mr. Benkendörfer has explained to you in recent weeks, and especially since last Saturday, that the associative life that the “Day to Come” wants to establish has now been joined by this company to which you dedicate your valuable work. And as you have already been informed, this “Coming Day” is not a joint-stock company like any other; this “Coming Day” is an assembly of personalities who now want to put into practice what they have promised to do socially when they have spoken to the masses in urgent words.

Of course, you cannot yet know with any inner certainty what will happen when you yourself, so to speak, launch your work into the endeavors of the “Day to Come”. But I can assure you, my esteemed audience, that this “day to come” will work with all its might to bring about a social future that must gradually provide a dignified existence for all people. Since we have not found the ear of the German working class in general, which we sought, we can now only appeal to a few through action. We will make every effort to ensure that you too can see that where we take action, we want to fulfill what was in our words.

We at “Kommender Tag” have had Mr. del Monte in our midst since the company was founded. We know that his attitude is fully in line with what we at “Kommender Tag” want and what I have just tried to explain to you in a few words. The other former partners of the del Monte company, Mr. Poch and Mr. Benkendörfer, have been part of our movement for many years. They have achieved much out of the spirit of this movement. And Mr. Benkendörfer is one of those personalities who perhaps best understand how, with active will, an economic enterprise such as the “Kommende Tag” must first transfer its threads to the free spiritual life. For social improvement is possible only if the free spiritual life, with the forces it must bring to the surface, can support economic life in an appropriate way. Social improvement is possible not through inflammatory slogans, but only if those forces of intellectual life that must be cultivated freely and independently can also devote themselves to economic life in an appropriate way, and are understood and accepted by economic life in the right way. That is the conviction of the “Coming Day”. Mr. Benkendörfer is imbued with this conviction. And as painful as it might be for the management and the employees of the Jos del Monte company to see Mr. Benkendörfer removed, at least in part, it must also be considered that Mr. Benkendörfer is now called upon to work at the most important post of the “Coming Day” in the sense of that which I have tried to explain to you. And since the Jose del Monte company now belongs to the “Coming Day,” Mr. Benkendörfer's labor, which is so beneficial to him, will also flow to this company in the future. And since we have come to appreciate and love the instructor of this company, Mr. Jos& del Monte himself, both as a person and as a worker, and since we have come to appreciate the other partner, Mr. Emil Poch, we are completely reassured that everything here will continue to develop in the same way, technically and otherwise, as it has done so far. And so we have no need to reproach ourselves for the fact that on the very day that we decided, for objective reasons, to accommodate the highly esteemed proposal of Mr. del Monte and the other shareholders to incorporate the Jose del Monte company into the “Kommenden Tag,” we also had to take away an important part of Mr. Benkendörfer's labor from this company at the same time.

But let me also say the following, because it is also a social truth and belongs to the social question - and until this is recognized, the social question and the social damage in the present cannot be properly addressed. On the day we merged with the Jose del Monte company, we had to take on most of Mr. Benkendörfer's highly valued employees. You may ask why we didn't just take on new employees and leave Mr. Benkendörfer with us. And to that I answer with that part of the social question which the discerning person today considers so important that he must keep repeating it: there are very few truly economically and intellectually capable personalities today; and when you need someone, you have to work hard to find someone you can use. The “Kommende Tag” is fortunate to have made such a find. It is certainly one of the things that can be called the social question that there are so few truly insightful and capable people in the present day. Anyone who has been forced to look for such people has suffered enough pain because there are so few such people in the present day. I can assure you: If there were a large number of people who did not just talk and “let themselves be employed”, if there were many people who did not just “let themselves be elected” here and there, but if there were many people who were fully committed to life, who also understood something of what they wanted to be part of in the right sense, then we would make faster progress in solving the social question, which is so urgently needed. Today, incompetence among leading people is one of the greatest social evils. That is part of the social question. And since this is still far too little known in the widest circles, it must be emphasized.

I have explained to you, my esteemed attendees, the attitude with which we want to unite with this company. I must leave it to you to recognize that what I have spoken to you is honest and sincere and borne of a sense of responsibility. We will endeavor to ensure that you recognize what you have not yet recognized. You will always have the opportunity to discuss anything that is close to your heart with the current and former directors and shareholders of the Jose del Monte company, who are still with us, with the new general director of “Der Kommende Tag”, Mr. Benkendörfer, and with the other members of “Der Kommende Tag” when the need arises. You will find that the “Coming Day” will endeavor to reintroduce humanity into the business world, which has gradually eliminated humanity from itself over time, which must once have passed, , provided that the “Kommende Tag” pursues it, to reintroduce humanity into business life, which has gradually eliminated humanity from itself over time, insofar as the “Kommende Tag” pursues it - that humanity that has an honest feeling, an honest desire for human work with every human being.

It is in this spirit that we take on the obligation that is imposed on us by our association with this company, and I can only hope that time will bring it about that you will be able to do more and more with us, whatever we can do, and that you will be convinced that what the Supervisory Board, the Board of Directors of the “Coming Day” present here today, may you have the opportunity - and we will endeavor to bring it about through our attitude - may you have the opportunity to find it true through our actions, what I was allowed to speak to you today.

[The introduction to the discussion by Eugen Benkendörfer, two unrecorded votes by laborers, and concluding words by Eugen Benkendörfer.]